We are in a season of suffering. It seems to be everywhere I look. Friends, family, church members and others are all going through an intense difficulty or trial of some sort, and it all seems to be occurring during this specific window of time. Liliya and I are definitely not exempt. My poor wife has been suffering from extreme abdominal pain for the last four weeks. We’ve been to several doctors who have been of no help. On top of that there have been some very difficult circumstances at my place of work, plus a teething ten month old! What is going on, God?! It makes me mad. It makes me doubt. There are often times when I wonder why God doesn’t break out of heaven and do something! “If you’re there, and you’re good, and you care, why are you just leaving us here in our pain?!” But sometimes, in the midst of my anger and doubt, I have moments of clarity and understanding. During those times I realize that God is bringing this suffering and pain so that He can give me more of Himself...so that I can cling more tightly to Him. In a sense, it is because He is good and because He loves us that He is allowing us to suffer, because in suffering we grab hold tight to the only thing that matters: Him. God is getting our attention, and attention to God is what we need.

C.S. Lewis famously stated that “pain is God’s megaphone.” Lewis couldn’t be more right. It is in our moments of distress that we cry out to God, seek God, need God. He uses suffering to rip our eyes and hands off the things of this world and fix them on the the only thing that lasts for eternity: Himself! He uses pain and suffering to give us the only thing we need. Wow! I should be thankful for suffering! It is, in fact, God’s mercy that He allows me to suffer, if suffering draws me to Him, since knowing Him means Eternal Life. No wonder then, why James 1:2 says, “Consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds...”, and why the Apostle Paul says that “our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” If suffering and pain is the means that God uses to make me cling to Him in wholehearted trust and faith, thus securing my eternal home in Heaven, then bring on the suffering! I'll gladly take a few years of pain to inherit an eternity of glory! Let me rejoice in my sufferings for they lead to my salvation!

But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. - 1 Peter 4:13